Racial Discrimination Japan

A chance encounter on a suburban train one recent Sunday sheds some awkward light on the elusive problem of racism in Japan. It began when a little Japanese girl pointed with fascination at a black woman and asked, "Daddy, what's that?" The father squirmed with embarrassment. He tried to satisfy the innocent curiosity of his preschool daughter by reminding her of an old Chinese fable known in Japan as "Saiyuki."

A chance encounter on a suburban train one recent Sunday sheds some awkward light on the elusive problem of racism in Japan. It began when a little Japanese girl pointed with fascination at a black woman and asked, "Daddy, what's that?" The father squirmed with embarrassment. He tried to satisfy the innocent curiosity of his preschool daughter by reminding her of an old Chinese fable known in Japan as "Saiyuki."

A Japanese beverage maker will stop using a trademark portraying a top-hatted, thick-lipped black man sipping a drink through a straw because some customers find it racist, the company announced today. Nobuaki Hashimoto, spokesman of Calpis Food Industry Co., said the company will discontinue the 65-year-old trademark by the end of the year. The logo appears on labels of the company's top-selling soft drinks and on advertising billboards across the country.